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a (26) T H E F
of many and of me also." Head the tirst two
verses of the last chapter of .Romans, and think
what a joy it would be to any one of us if we
could but write "my name" in the place of
Phoebe in that chapter.
And yet we may. The special service on
which Phoebe was then occupied was to car
ry a letter from Paul to the officers of the
church at Rome ami see that it was properly
delivered aud read to the people, and to give
to those people tidings and cheer concerning
the progress of the Gospel elsewhere. It was
a modest errand and she did it faithfully.
Whether she acted as a deaconness, or merely
as a messenger, makes no difference. It was
duty that cost effort, and that was cheerfully
done.
CONCLUSION. ~
The Acts and the Epistles tell us only of the
beginnings of Gospel work. The endings will
1 A-l J * ? " ~ ?
ue loia in tne any when the Lord Jesus shall
say to us "Inasmuch as ye have doue it unto
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me."
BY PRODUCTS OF CHRISTIANITY.
In this age of development, nothing attracts
mere attention than the realization of material,
once considered waste, in many of the lines of
human industry. But, in religious thought and
effort, there is a want of interest in blessings
which spring out of, and flow from, Christianity.
"While the magnificent attainments of tho
highest civilization is accredited to Christian
nations, there is a pervasive inclination to ascribe
present blessings to colonization, rather
than to Christianity, which is the source whence
comes civilization. Do we value human happiness
1 Its highest attainments are the results '
of Christian fellowship centered in him who is
declared to be a friend that sticketh closer than
a brother.
If troubles come, the motto of Christianity,
"Bear ye ono another's burdens," springs to
active relief. The love of Christ is a constraining
power in the individual heart, which makes
one think not on the things of himself, but on
the things of another. Not only in social intercourse
do we find the principles of Christianity
manifested, but also in public charities, hospitals,
schools, and institutions for the prevention
of life's degradation, and for restoration of
those who have fallen. Of course these institutions
are not wholly supported by church members,
nor indeed in the name of Christianity;
but the idea underlying the establishment and
maintenance of them is of Christian origin. Be
sides all tilts, if it were possible to calculate
the saving to governments; in lessening of police
expense, by the moral influence of Christianity,
it could be shown to he immense. The law is
not a terror to good works, nor is the man who
says he is good enough without being a Christian
aware that his knowledge of right living
came from Christianity. The government, the
home and the enjoyment of friendship, wlicr
ever, and whenever, found, in a high degree to '
be blessings, the credit should be giveln to
Christianity. The low, but very common, idea
is, that Christianity has no beneficial effect upon the
life that now is. But the history of thy i
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V> >U mat "Jtm nan, auu in, iUIJllMIIg I11S
word. "And the Lord said, shall I hide from
Abraham that thing which I do? Seeing that
Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty 1
nation, and all the nations of the earth shall <
be blessed in him."?Oen. 18:17, 18. The peace
and safety of the ungodly in Christian lands
come of God's goodness just as he sends his
rnins upon the just and the unjust. The tares i
and the wheat draw their life alike from the
RESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
Suggestions to Sund
BY E. C. QOl
The Sunday School lessons for 11)13 begin
witn the Creation, and end with the taking of
Jericho and the sin of Achan. There are two
lessons outside the regular series: one for
June 22, and the other for December 21. This
series is resumed in 1915 and in 1917.
Without presuming to criticize this skipping
from one Testament to another, i venture to
suggest that Sunday School teachers have just
now an excellent opportunity to get acquainted
with the general scope and plan of Biblical
revelation, in the light of which they may intelligently
study each lesson and see its relation
to the scope and plan of the whole series,
notwithstanding the alternation from one Tcs
lament to tlie other.
To make this suggestion valuable the following
particular suggestions are oHered:
1. Sunday School teachers are tree to disregard
questions respecting textual and literary
criticism and are authorized to take the
liible as it comes to them in our English versions
and as it claims to be, the Word of God
to men respecting redemption from sin.
2. Chronological and geographical ques
nous, prior 10 the call of Abraham are uncertain
and should claim little attention. This
applies to chronological questions down to the
times of David.
3. The iiible is not a history oi the human
race nor of the Jewish people. It is a revelation
of God's purpose respecting redemption
and of the means and agencies by which redemption
is accomplished.
A. In Genesis l:2ti-3U, we are told that God
ottered man, created in his own image, dominion
over the earth and all that it contains.
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unuwujr tins ULLUr pi opusiiu Uiai UlCl'e SIlOUlll
be on earth what we may call a heavenly kingdom
in which man made in God's image should
rule as God's representative. Man, left to the
"freedom of his own will," failed to secure
this kingdom. But God's purpose is not to be
thwarted; and so God proposes another plan,
which now takes the form of redemption. A
chosen people, delivered from their sins and
recreated in God's image, elevated to sonship,
by a Redeemer, to whom as their Head they
are to be united as one body, are to reign on
earin, as uoa s sons and representatives. See
the Bible throughout as to Messiah's Kingdom,
and Rev. 11:15; 22:3-5. (A. R. V.).
5. This new plan involves a conflict instituted
by God himself between good and evil;
or, in Bible terms, between the Serpent and his
seed and the Woman and her seed. See Gen.
3:15, which is the seed-corn out of which this
redemptive revelation is to grow. The unity
oi tne .tJible is to be seen in that it is a history
of the salient features of this age-long conflict,
in which the Woman's seed, in all its
manifestations is to suffer, and the Serpent's
seed is finally and forever to be crushed out.
The underlying principle is that the salvation
Df God's people always involves, sooner, or later,
the destruction of his and his people's enesoil,
but the cultivation of the soil is for the
wheat.
Many intelligent, observant men like to live
in religious communities, to have their children
L LA 1 ? ? 1 *
L.'iugm uy pious leacners; because they see that
environment and influence tend to develop the
better qualities of character. Yet sad to say
some professing Christians -attracted by the
beauties of the plain, pitch their tents towards
Sodom; oftentimes to have Lot's experiences.
Cor. O
1 U T H [January 15, 1913
ay School Teachers
IDON, D. D.
mies. In the light of this great conflict we are
to regard the stories of Cain aud Abel, the
blood, the Exodus, the destruction of the Canaauites,
the persecution of God's people in all
ages, the death of Christ, the final triumph of
the Church when in the Revelation we see depicted
the destruction of the Dragon, the
Beast and the False Prophet.
6. The Old Testament History is very conveniently
divided into two great periods: The
Period of the Human Race and The Period of
The Chosen People. During the first period
r\ i j ? i a- a i * < * ii
vjiuu ucuis as iu leuempuon wun me race as a
race. All mankind have a revelation of redemption.
This period extends from creation
to the dispersion at and after the building of
the tower of Babel. The second period extends
from the Call of Abraham to the end
of the Old Testament history. During this
period redemption is revealed chiefly if not
exclusively to a Chosen People, the Seed of Abraham.
It may be divided into four divisions
corresponding to the form of government under
which the Seed of Abraham lived: The
Kule of the Patriarchs from Abraham to Joseph;
The Kule of the Judges from Moses to
iSamuel; The Kule of the Kings from Saul t'o
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^icucivjuii | xnc uuiu ui iue vy urxu xuvvers irom
Nebuchadnezzar to the end of the Old Testament
history. Under the Rule of the Kings
Messiah's Kingdom culminates in its typical
form, and gradually passes away, having served
its purpose as a type. The Chosen People
come under the Rule of the World Powers.
Since that time they have always been under
a dual government, one ecclesiastical, the other
political. This is to continue until Messiah's
i n 3 11 -*i
iviugaum in an its power and glory is established
on the earth, when the rule of the world
powers will disappear.
7. Teachers are authorized to take the traditional
Mew Testament view that Moses is
the author or compiler of the book of Genesis.
'This book is a literary unit and a reasonable
conjecture is that its author's object was to
bring clearly and forcefully to his countrymen,
suffering under Egyptian despotism, a knowledge
of the Lord God of their fathers in order
to prepare them for the Exodus. He does
this by setting forth to them their God as the
original creator of all things; as the grantor
of dominion to man; as the institutor of the
age-long conflict by which his own people were
to be delivered from the dominion of the Serpent
and to secure their eternal reign on and
over the earth; as the God who entered into
special covenant with Abraham and his Seed in
order to secure this glorious consummation.
Note, how the Woman's Seed is saved by
Qod's intervention from the malice of Cain
by the substitution of Seth for Abel; from a
desperate world-wid|e wickedness by the
Flood, and again by the call of Abraham and
his separation from his father's family and
the surrounding tribes; from famine by the
agency of Joseph; from the bondage of Egypt
by the Exodus; that the last word of the book
is a confident prediction of the Exodus.
8. LeJ. me also suggest that Sunday School
teachers, whether or not the foregoing commends
itself to them, resolve that during this
year they will give more emphasis in their
worK to tne great facts and doctrines of redemption.
These facts, which will enter so
largely into their work this year, such as creation,
the fall, the covenant with Abraham and
Israel, lie at the foundation of our Christianity,
ut of these and subsequent facts come the
?